Saturday, 5 March 2011

There is this great website which details “101 Must-Do Kiwi Experiences” as chosen by New Zealanders (www.aatravel.co.nz/101/) so I thought we would check which of them we have done during the past two months (a little traveller's liberty has been taken by me in reaching the judgment)

Abel Tasman National Park

yes

Ahipara and Shipwreck Bay

no

Akaroa and Banks Peninsula

no

Animal & Crazy Kelly Tarlton

no

Aoraki Mount Cook

yes

Arrowtown

yes

Arthur's Pass

yes

Auckland Gulf Islands

no

Auckland Volcanoes

no

Auckland War Memorial

yes

Auckland's West Coast

no

Bay of Islands

yes

Be A-mazed!

no

Beehive and Parliament Building

yes

Buller Gorge

yes

Camping Country

yes

Canterbury Plains Hot Air Balloon Ride

no

Cape Kidnappers

no

Cape Palliser

no

Cape Reinga

no

Castlepoint

no

Central Otago Curling

yes

Christchurch City

yes

Coastal Kaikoura

yes

Coromandel Township

yes

Cross-country skiing

no

Devonport and North Head

no

Doubtful Sound

yes

Dunedin City

yes

Eastland

yes

Farewell Spit

yes

Fine Wine Hawke’s Bay

yes

Fiordland National Park

yes

Fox and Franz Josef Glacier

yes

Glenorchy and Dart River

no

Golf in an Alpine Amphitheatre

no

Hanmer Springs Christchurch

yes

Hokianga

yes

Hollyford Valley

yes

Hot Water Beach

yes

Hundertwasser Toilets Kawakawa

yes

Kapiti Island

no

Karangahake Gorge

no

Kicking the Autumn leaves

no

Lake Matheson

yes

Lake Taupo's Top Water Attractions

no

Lake Tekapo

yes

Lake Waikaremoana

yes

Marlborough Sounds

yes

Marlborough Wine Trail

yes

Mitre Peak & Milford Sound

yes

Moeraki Boulders

yes

Mount Maunganui: Mauao

no

Mount Taranaki

no

Mount Tarawera Rotorewa

yes

New Chums Beach Coromandel

yes

New Plymouth's coastal waters

no

NZ Rugby Museum

no

Orakei Korako

no

Otago Peninsula

yes

Otago Rail Experience

no

Port Waikato

no

Punakaiki

yes

Queenstown Adventure

no

Raglan

no

Rere Rock Slide

no

Rotorua Geothermal

yes

Rotorua Luge, Skyrides

no

Rotorua Rafting

no

Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe

no

Seafood City

no

SkyJump & Sky Tower

yes

South Westland

yes

Southern Scenic Route

yes

Spa and well-being destination

yes

Stewart Island

no

Stonehenge Aotearoa

no

Takaka Hill

yes

Taranaki Gardens

no

Te Mata Peak

no

Te Papa

yes

The Blue Pools of Haast

yes

The Bridge to Nowhere Manawatu-Wanganui

yes

The Forgotten World Highway

yes

The Interislander Experience

yes

The Pinnacles

yes

The Queen Charlotte Track

no

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

no

TSS Earnslaw

no

Tutukaka / The Poor Knights...

yes

Ulva Island

no

Wainui Beach

no

Waipoua Forest

yes

Waitangi Treaty Grounds

yes

Waitomo Caves

no

Wellington Writers' Walk

yes

Whakarewarewa

yes

Whanganui National Park

yes

White Island

no

Winter Mountain Fun

no

We did / visited / saw over half of them which I suppose is not bad for a two month tour which did not set out to tick off a list.

In terms of what it cost us, we spent more than planned on “doing things” such as walking glaciers, boat trips, diving etc. Putting to one side the cost of getting here and van hire, the two months cost us around $10,000 with 35% of that spent on doing things, 10% on fuel and the balance almost equally split between food / drink (we drank a lot of wine!) and accommodation.

Everyone we met from the UK agrees with us that New Zealand is quite expensive (not helped by the strength of the kiwi dollar) but we decided that we were unlikely to get a second chance to do something so it was do it now or never. We got a better exchange rate when using our credit card (we use a Halifax Clarity or Post Office Mastercard because they do not charge an exchange rate commission) to buy things and used currency exchanged cash (poorer rate) only when we had to. We never took up the option of paying in UK£ when it was occasionally offered on our credit card because we know it costs you a lot more (at least 5%).

Food was more expensive that in the UK, camp sites were reasonably cheap (and in general of a much better quality than in Australia) and diesel also was much cheaper at about half the UK cost and Lead Free at about 80% of the current cost in the UK.

Comparing food costs with the UK, the table below shows the prices we paid at supermarkets in NZ and that charged in our local Tesco upon our return.

NZ $

£ at $2.14=£1

UK$ Tesco

UK :NZ %

800g bread loaf

4.59

2.14

1.10

51%

Muesli

4.39

2.05

1.49

73%

Nachos

3.49

1.63

1.98

121%

300g fresh ravioli

5.59

2.61

1.65

63%

Tuna 180g

2.45

1.14

1.35

118%

Ibuprofen

1.99

0.93

0.42

45%

Paracetamol 20

1.49

0.70

0.25

36%

Corned Beef 340g

5.89

2.75

2.48

90%

Milk 2 litre

3.66

1.71

1.25

73%

1.5l Cranberry

4.99

2.33

1.28

55%

Apples Braeburn 1kg

3.99

1.86

1.47

79%

Red Pepper

2.49

1.16

0.80

69%

Total

$45.01

=$21.03

£15.52

74%

Of course prices vary a lot around both countries (and here are measured as of March 2011) but for me, “the shopping basket” comparison reaches an obvious conclusion even though you could argue that you can get it cheaper at your shop and these prices do not take into account “special offers”.

As a destination, New Zealand has some amazing scenery. The South Island is certainly the better of the two but you cannot dismiss the North Island – it has some remarkable areas as well.

Having two months at our disposal, we spent about 35% of at touring the north island. On reflection, a few extra days on the North Island would have been useful because we missed out a lot of the middle west and south west and we could have missed out a few sites in the South Island to compensate or done things a bit quicker.

Driving here is hard work because although the roads are in good condition, there are some taxing hills to go up and down with bends whose curve seems unreal. For this reason, you cannot always easily travel long distances in a day (although we met people who were doing so) – that was not an issue for us because we had two months but if you were trying to do both islands in a couple of weeks, it could become one.

We covered about 7500 kms in the two months which was less than our pre-departure worst case estimation.

Our actual route map shows that we visited a tremendous amount of this beautiful country. For those wanting a copy of the itinerary, it was:

Day 1

Leave UK

Day 3

Arrive Auckland

Day 5

Orewa

Day 6

Tutukaka

Day 8

Russell

Day 10

Rawene

Day 11

Matakohe

Day 12

Coromandel

Day 13

Hahei

Day 15

Rotorua

Day 16

Te Araroa

Day 17

Mahia Beach

Day 18

Napier

Day 20

Motutere Bay

Day 21

Stratford

Day 22

Wellington

Day 24

Nelson

Day 25

Farewell Spit

Day 27

Murchison

Day 28

Westport

Day 29

Greymouth

Day 30

Franz Josef

Day 32

Haast

Day 33

Wanaka

Day 35

Te Anau

Day 37

Milford Sound

Day 39

Te Anau

Day 41

Invercargill

Day 43

Catlins

Day 45

Dunedin

Day 46

Otago Peninsula

Day 47

Moireki

Day 48

Ranfurly

Day 49

Cromwell

Day 50

Mount Cook

Day 51

Methven

Day 52

Arthurs Pass

Day 54

Blenheim

Day 55

Kaikoura

Day 58

Hanmer Falls

Day 59

Christchurch

Day 60

UK

Some days we did not travel far at all, it was a great luxury to be able to stop and look at most things we passed along the route – both planned and unplanned.

Our van performed well and certainly was comfortable. We got the impression from other travellers that it was a better van than theirs – they would complain about things in their van and we had almost nothing to complain about with ours. The key issues for them were that their vans were not well equipped and not very comfortable at the back.

Average fuel consumption was about 9.7 kms to the litre and we noticed that the worst figures (around 8.75) came when we were in the mountains – not really a surprise there. We used 9 kms to the litre as a planning guide when considering fuel and could manage around 800 kms on a full tank (not that we ever tried).

The van is well suited to camping in the wild and can support you easily for around three days (it really depends on how much you wash etc). In some of the remoter places, we really did feel totally self sufficient. We had no difficulty on the dirt roads (i.e. the unpaved roads which are quite common once you get off the main roads anywhere in the country), they were certainly a bit bumpy in places but you have to adjust your driving style and speed to fit the road. We had a very good set of tyres with deep tread which was reassuring.

Once we had started the trip, we did not have much contact with Wilderness because there was no need to. Certainly their product (the van, the website, the advice) was well worth the slightly extra money it probably cost to hire through them. If we were doing it again, we would consider taking out campervan insurance with a third party insurance company rather than with them (because it is considerably cheaper) and we would probably buy our ferry tickets direct when we knew when we wanted to cross – there did not seem to be any capacity problems on the ferries when we were there even at the peak of the season. If you join the Top10 club for $40, you also get a 10% discount on the ferries which pays for almost half of the Top10 membership fee as well as 10% off camp site fees and Kiwi Club membership for a 10% discount at their sites is $20.

The weather was much wetter than we had planned on. About half of the time it was dry and sunny, one third it was dry and cloudy and the balance was wet or very wet or very very very wet! We found that New Zealand weather changes very fast during the day and distances of even a hundred kms can also make quite a difference in the weather. The weather forecasts on TV were usually quite accurate although sometimes a little difficult to follow (around 1850 is the time they appear on the main news channel).

One of the most useful things we bought with us was our SatNav – this is a standard UK TomTom onto which we downloaded a NZ map before we left. It was a boon when determining travel times and finding the actual location of addresses we were going to (such as attractions, parks or camp sites). It was also very good at giving us a feel for the shape of the road around the corner when we were driving very bendy and challenging sections.

Air New Zealand were very good compared to other long distance airlines we have travelled with and the airports (other than LAX) were easy to get through. We were not hit badly by jet lag, perhaps because we used Melatonin for the first time as an aid.

What didn’t we like? Sand flies were a great nuisance but they were not as bad as we thought they would be! Being vegetarian made food difficult on some occasions.

So that is all for this trip blog, reviews of many places we stayed at have been put into Trip Advisor for other travellers to read / use.

Later this year we are going to Pompeii for a week’s lecture tour (just booked it) and maybe a week of diving in the Maldives …………. life never stops for a busy traveller and blogs will follow.

Our next road trip may be the USA in the summer 2012, we have in mind Route 66, Route 101 (West Coast Highway) and then back through the Rockies (although we also want to drive Canada and Argentina sometime).

We hope you have enjoyed reading this blog trip, we certainly have enjoyed doing all of the things which featured in it.

Thursday, 3 March 2011

We stayed one extra night in the van because the hotel we planed to stay at in Christchurch (The Grand Chancellor) was severely damaged in the earthquake and may have to be pulled down before it collapses. Wilderness charged us very slightly more for the extra day than the same average day rate we had paid for the previous two months – that’s business!

Excluding the flight time from Christchurch to Auckland, our trip coming back (continuing east across the International Date Line via Los Angeles) was a short 24 hrs 40 minutes by comparison with that on the way out (25 hours 10 mins !)

Sam – this is the plane we flew back from New Zealand on – what sort of plane is it?

Because of the effect of the International Date Line we arrived in Los Angeles for the transit stop before we left Auckland on the same day and effectively had Wednesday twice.

Transit in Los Angeles is a totally different experience to transit in Hong Kong. Even though we are on a through flight and landed there simply to refuel and have no wish to enter the USA, not only do we have to have successfully applied for an ESTA, we then have to go through the usual unwelcoming and suspicious process of being fingerprinted and photographed by Border Control (we handed the immigration officer our large orange transit pass labelled quite clearly “this passenger is in transit” and we were then asked “what is the purpose of your visit to the USA today?” – what did he think we were doing there I wonder). Having passed these tests however, there is no intention however of allowing us to mix with other air-side passengers who will also have been x-rayed and searched, some of whom will also be on your plane. We are then herded into a “secure transit facility” for

about two hours before being escorted back onto the same plane. This “facility” is a large room with chairs, a toilet and

a few freebies (drinks, crisps etc). The whole process seems to be totally pointless and does the US Authorities no credit. This transit experience is one to be endured rather than experienced (or in the case of Singapore – enjoyed).

We do however consider ourselves fortunate that we were not transiting between international flights, because there is no through checking of luggage if you go through LAX and change planes there, you have to do immigration, then collect your luggage, do customs, then check it in again then proceed through transit although in this case, you are allowed out to mix with other transit passengers.

If you are on a through plane and want to properly go airside, visit the shops, buy some food or whatever, you have to formally enter the USA through immigration, collect your bags, do customs, go land-side, re check-in, go back through security and then get airside (by which time your plane will have left). So of course, no one does this.

Eventually we got back to Heathrow (having watched many films), somewhat jet lagged and cold (it is 2c as compared with the 25c we left behind).

And so, a couple of hours short of exactly two months after leaving home, we open the front door and start the strange process of becoming used to living in something which does not move, has more than one room, does not require dump tank emptying ……… and is dark and cold! England is of course just approaching Spring so nights are long, the weather is often miserable etc etc. But there is little rain compared to parts of New Zealand!

We are quite tired now, it has been a very full-on two months. Everyday we were doing something or going somewhere or both and therefore a few days of peace and quiet will be welcome.

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

A two minutes silence took place today across New Zealand at 12.51 – exactly one week after the quake

struck the death toll is heading for 240. We arrived at our final campsite for this holiday in Hanmer Springs in time to participate in the two minutes silence. There are quite a number of people here who have left Christchurch because of the quake and the local school population has soared as a consequence.

The road to Hanmer Springs passes through an area called “The Alpine Triangle” (New Zealand does like to ensure that every area has a tourist name and almost every road is on a trail). As usual, the very windy and up and down route goes through a spectacular range of mountains and fields and valleys and gorges and all of the scenic things which New Zealand does best.

Autumn yellows are beginning to become appear in this area and some leaves have even fallen off some of the trees – perhaps good that we are going home tomorrow at the start of Autumn and arrive (theoretically) into the start of an English spring.

We have to navigate our way through sheep herding and

also deer herding – they had to construct a corridor for the deer to cross the road because they are far more nervy than sheep.

Near Hanmer Falls is the Waiau Bridge – quite a spectacular

bridge over a high gorge leading to a nice valley

The bridge is however one of the numerous Bungy Jumping spots in New Zealand and we watch someone throw themselves over

the edge and finally be hauled in by a boat in the river below.

As Hanmer Falls is our last night in New Zealand, we celebrate by eating out, a rare thing on this holiday since we have been far more self sufficient in this van than previously.

On our final morning, it is raining cats and dogs which is a bit of a pity because we hoped the rain would hold off until we had got to Christchurch. So the final dump etc takes place in the pouring rain, but true to form for New Zealand, the weather rapidly picks up and within 30 minutes of leaving, we are in the sun with rainbows and it remains hot

but very windy for the rest of the day.

The earthquake is never far from our minds and as we approach the airport near to which we have to return Eppy, we see signs of earthquake damage. Initially, it is the odd wall fallen down or a bit of damage, but close to the airport, there are numerous buildings which have been reduced to large piles of rubble and churches in particular seem to have been hit. Particularly poignant is one church which has lost its spire and bell tower – the spire is standing perfectly upright almost as if it had been placed there and the tower has been reduced to rubble. It is not a moment for a photograph. We can also see large dust clouds over the city blown into the air by the very windy day.

This may just be a sign at the Wilderness office welcoming us back but it is also an indication of the effects of the earthquake

There is no water in this part of Christchurch and hence the old names on the board are rubbed out rather than washed out and vans go out with the water in the tanks which they have when they come in.

Eppy handed over (she goes out again tomorrow), we

head for the airport for a long wait. Originally we had planned to sightsee, then we had thought of going to the Antarctic Centre near the airport but none of these are possible so it is a long wait for our flight to Auckland at the airport.

The airport is showing some signs of damage with ceilings down in places, the odd cracked beam and cracked plaster and the staff

here seem very concerned that we might be leaving because of the quake – a number of times we have been asked to come back in about 6 months when everything will be sorted out. I think however it will take more than 6 months to get Christchurch back onto its feet and functioning properly again. As we take off for the short flight to Auckland, you can see the darkness of the CBD area out of the window, contrasting with lights in other areas.

2014 JulyDiving in the Red Sea at St Johns; Sissinghurst and Chartwell;June Meganisi again; May 3 days in Budapest; February Amritsar, Polio Immunisation with Rotary in Delhi

2013 June to August 9,500 mile RV trip around the USA; May Ancient sites in Turkey; MarchDarjeeling and Kolkata; February Polio Immunisation with Rotary in India

2012: November Coastal Cruise up Norway with Hurtigruten; Diving in the Red Sea at The Brothers; SeptemberDiving in the Red Sea at St Johns;Leonardo and La Scala inMilan; July Cornwall; JuneMeganissi Greece

2011: November Tasmania; September Pompeii, Herculanium and Campania; May Diving in the Maldives; January and February New Zealand

2010: October Lisbon and Sintra; August Diving Red Sea; June Syria and Jordan; May Assisi and Gubbio

2009: November Washington; Alnwick Gardens; Diving in Edinburgh; June to September Australia; May Alhambra Spain; Diving Red Sea St Johns; March Cooking at Bettys; Dedman's Garage; February Diving Northern Red Sea; January Antarctica;